Battlefield: Bad Company 2 includes 'VIP code' for free day-one DLC

Except we don't have mods...

...hell our platforms aren't even open to shit like mods.

I agree, after all that shit with the Cerberus network, they wouldnt let me link my gamertag to my EA account because they said it was already linked! So i had to create an entirely separate silver gamertag to download it! Thankfully for ME2 the dlc was accessible on all profiles, I just hope this is the same. EA has one of the worst website/account systems and customer service ive ever encountered

Yeah we do just few games allow them...

http://playstation.joystiq.com/2008/03/23/master-chief-comes-to-ps3-courtesy-of-unreal-tournament/

Here's some more modded characters for UT3 on PS3


http://ps3mods.blogspot.com/2008/03/ut3-character-mods-hello-master-chief.html

You guys are idiots. Gamestop is just raking in cash on used games, of which devs get no cut. Why would you want to cut developers out of profit? How does that help the industry? It's free if you buy the game new, and if you want to save some money and buy the game used, you can still get the content for a small fee.

You can probably buy Madden 10 used right now for, I don't know, $30? Then just pay the $10 for Online Franchise, and you get all of the content for $20 below MSRP. Some kid got money for a game he was done with, you get the game cheaper-than-new, Gamestop stays in business, and EA doesn't get cut out of the equation. Everybody wins.

Gears of War 2 was the first game I remember doing this, and I thought it was brilliant. Plus, I felt like I got rewarded for buying the game new. I hope to see more of it in the future.

Trust me, Riccitello knows what he's doing. This is good for the industry.

p.s. Getting the Mass Effect 2 content takes all of 5 minutes for people who never took the short bus to school.

I don't have a problem with the concept. I have a problem with the implementation.

Why can't they just put the DLC on the respective marketplaces (Live or PSN Store), instead of making me create an account specifically tied to EA?

If all the publishers do this, I'm going to need an "Account Manager" on my consoles to make sure I remember my account information for every single publisher that puts out a game.

Just put it in the regular store, EA. Makes it easier for everyone (even you).

I agree with Akronon. it's a pain in the ass to have to worry about a bunch of different accounts, whether they're properly linked to your gamertag, etc. Just give us a code that comes with new games that enables this in-game DLC pipeline, and let us use the code to download it from the XBLM or PSN, rather than having to do it on some wonky hit-or-miss website.

Yeah it's just so they can spam your inbox with marketing emails. it's frustrating.

No no no...everyone loves EA this year. We're focusing all our hatred upon Activision.

C'mon, get with the times Blight.

True.

It IS free. And the game IS awesome. And I am GOING to buy it. I WILL have it day 1 anyway.

...So I guess they are not THAT evil.

Eh, they still have horns, its just cut, trimmed, and shaved down like Hellboy's...

that explains the whole damn mess with the code redemptions that people are having with ME2.

How is this not a problem? Even if you buy it new, I hope you don't plan on playing it with any of your friends who bought it used or rented it, because then you're not going to be able to play the new maps and content, too. Not to mention all the problems with Mass Effect 2 DLC (I never even received a code in my brand new box from Amazon).

Yeah, no problems at all.

You do realize that just because you buy it used doesn't mean you can't access the content...right?

If I buy a game used, it's not going to be soon enough to matter.

that may be true but its getting really old really fast, its at the point that company s are doing it on purpose or that's how it seems to me any way, heck how long until we really get to the point of if you dont buy the game new you wont get the code to start a account to download a service to access the downloadable epic final boss battle

"that may be true but its getting really old really fast, its at the point that company s are doing it on purpose or that's how it seems to me any way"

NO SHIT SHERLOCK

of course this is on purpose, and it works great in my opinion.

Now instead of using DLC as a means to make up for used sales by charging everyone an extra ten dollars, it only forces people who buy used to pay extra.

If i buy the game new, it wont affect me, AND i get free downloads along the way for being a 100% buyer.

This only affects people who buy games used, and it's a great way of shifting the cost of new games on just people who buy used, and not people who support the industry like me and anyone else who buys new.


TL;DR

THIS IS GOOD

I agree that this is a pretty decent system of getting us to buy games new, but i feel that there is a massive problem in giving different exclusive DLC to different stores. It has been happening for a while now and is unagreeable at best

it will be like mass effect 2.

i.e, if you pre-ordered with steam, you will get it.

i would imagine so, i got the code with mass effect 2.

just right click the game, and click the view game CD key, it will list all the relevant codes, including DLC

Reply fail

meant as a reply to Ballistic H

Obviously they're doing it on purpose! The whole point is to incentivize new purchases of games instead of used purchases. Makes perfect sense to me and I think its brilliant. I'm not crazy about the EA account linkage stuff but I'll try and figure it out ... pretty sure I had to link an EA account to my PSN ID to do the online season in Madden 10. Thats the only thing I don't like about it.

I don't think they'll go that far. I doubt pissing off their customers will really work in their favour.

I agree that this is a great incentive to buy games new because if you think about it, that'll bring the cost of used games down even more as a "counter" incentive to buy used games.

It all comes down to this: If you really like/love the game, you'll be buying it new on day one or shortly after. If it's a game you don't mind picking up used then you probably don't really care about the DLC. If you do care, it'll be available to buy anyways which will bring the cost back up on par or close to what you'd pay for it brand new.

In the end, this helps developers bring in some more revenue for their hard work to entertain us, so I'm all for it.

Here's the thing... it's not meant to stop used sales. It's meant to be a means for the developer to still make money even on used sales.

They don't care if it brings the price up to the same as a new copy, they'd be fine if Gamestop sold the used version at half the price of the new copy, they have the DLC to make their commission cut on those used copies now.

I hope all developers start this type of plan. It'll cut down on the potential profits of gamestop and give developers an income boost they can use to fund new development!

I'm not big on shooters (I don't have the time to dedicate) but I have been playing the Demo for this and loving it.

It's no greater feeling to get put in a tight squad reeking havoc, firing a tracer gun and having a teammate blow up a tank. I never thought I would be a "this game is better than (insert game of choice)" but it really is good judging by the demo. It makes you feel like you are an important part of a team (I suck and still finish near the middle of the pack in points). I have gotten the best squad badge once or twice on the demo and it actually felt pretty good.

Needless to say I will be purchasing this.

So Dante is really good? I agree, Darksiders is tits, but I haven't really heard anything about Dante yet.

Despite the fact that I know how you feel (and my wallet mourns), I gotta say...we've got a hell of a good problem going. So how is MAG? I want to pick it up, but at the same time I'm getting less and less time to play nowadays. Do you have to progress far in the ranking system to appreciate the game, or is it fun in the first few hours?

@WRE

I'm enjoying Dantes Inferno a lot. It's not the same type of puzzle fest that Darksiders is but it's probably got better combat. Both are great, I'd say Darksiders is a little better though.

@General Death

MAG is absolutely amazing. It's crazy because it's not a pretty game graphically, the controls aren't the best and there isn't a large variety of maps ... you'd think hearing that it's not a fun game. However, that couldn't be further from the truth. It's one of the most addictive games I've ever played and even when I want to stop I usually can't bring myself to do it. I started off as an infantry type assault character, using the machine gun, my K/D ratio was less than 1. It was probably .90 or even lower at one point. I just kept getting sniped and I didn't the skill points to upgrade my gear. Then once I leveld up I got the red dot sight, instead of just iron sights, and a foregrip and I started murdering people.
Even then my KD ratio was worsening, my next plan of action was to have the ability to heal squadmates, so I started saving up for the resuccitation kit and that helped me get a lot of XP in Suppression mode (basically a 64 player team death match). Shortly there after I wanted to start sniping people, but the stock sniper rifle has a lot of barrell wander ... eventually I got the foregrip, silencer and higher magnification scope for the Sniper Rifle and I started having matches where I had 33 kils and 1 death! Once I reached 5,000 points I was able to respec (reasign my skill points) my character and I went all out sniper and medic, no machine gun upgrades. I upgraded to the Janus Sniper rifle, suppressor, steady aim perk and variable magnification scope ... I could snipe from a far or up close.
Only problem is when I got into an issue with close quarters combat my sidearm (just a standard glock pistol) was ineffective in the trenches against shotguns, sub machine guns and assault rifles ... the sniper rifle obviously less effective than the pistol. So, last night I reached the plateau where I could respec again and I upgraded my sidearm to a fully automatic uzi like weapon, and bought up to the .50 caliber sniper rifle! I need more points to get the healing ability back but it's been a blast experimenting with different loadouts and building my own class.

To answer your question specifically: I'm not great at first person shooters (terrible at MW2) and I never felt like I was being cheated when I died in MAG. It's an adjustment because each loadout only offers so many currency points ... and each item (armor), weapon, grenade, attachment, etc costs currency. Even if you had the poison grenades, .50 cal sniper rifle with supressor and bipod, SMG sidearm with red dot sight, suppressor, revive kit, upgraded rocket launcher, helmet and heavy armor you wouldn't be able to use it all on the same loadout. You have to balance what gear to use with what armor because you only have a certain amount of currency points. In that respect, there is no unbfair advantage like other games where you can use whatever loadout you want after you've unlocked the items. It's very balanced.

The leveling is more grinding that COD or other shooters like KZ2. But, you won't be at a huge disadvantage early on because of the currency limits on loadouts. Upgrading up to level 20 takes longer than going to level 40 in COD.

They did a damn good job with it. The most amazing compliment I can pay them is that I haven't had any lag what-so-ever in over 30 hours of playtime. It's not a perfect game and some things needs to be updated with a patch (like the knife) but overall I feel like I'm just scrathing the surface of what the game has to offer. I can lead a squad or a platoon now and give directives which gives a completely different dynamic to this online only FPS.

Sorry for the long reply.

I think that pretty much settles the fact that I'll definitely be getting MAG, even if I do already have BFBC2 pre-ordered. I've been missing large-scale war games since Delta Force, and previous console Battlefield-type games just never really sold me. Thanks for the info...it was a long read, but worth it. Now I know.



...and knowing is half the battle!

G.I. JOE!

@ WRE:

I too am enjoying Dante's Inferno a lot. Many people give it grief about its similarities to God of War, but it really is a solid game. Plus you get to ride some cool demon mounts and that always kicks ass.

i posted above, but ill post it again.

If you pre-ordered mass effect 2 (EA game), you still got the cerberus code and anything else you would need.

This is the same system from the same company, just replace "Cerberus" with "VIP".

When we pre-purchased ME2 from steam, it explicitly stated we were getting the Cerberus code. This is new, apparently even to Valve, and probably wont get updated in time for us to get Day One content. Steam hasn't had the quickest reflexes.

I don't doubt we will get the code eventually, but...

even if some of those things were in the design phase when the rest of the game was, that doesn't mean it could have made the final cut.

It has been mentioned before on this site, but since some people are dense they forget.

The final reproduction copy of a game has to be ready sometimes weeks and months before the game is released.

In those weeks and occasionally months, the developers have to do something, and a lot of the dlc you receive is that something, even if it was made before the game was released.

would you prefer they release the DLC that was ready for day one a month later to give you the illusion that it took longer than it did?

its not just a way to get us to buy new, which you should do anyway. its a way to say "f you people who are screwing us by buying used games". and yea, f them. Games are expensive to make and if game developers keep getting screwed by companies like gamestop and cheapskates then the game companies will ultimately (in extreme cases) go out of business. Try playing good games then :-/

EA, like most companies in this economy, are hurting bad enough and used games sales just make it worse. Kudos to them for finding a way make money without resorting to micro payments or subscriptions.

The fact that the dlc is so extensive and hit day 1 (like i said) shows it was always designed well in advance. See you may claim people are so "dense" that they forget that a game's been complete weeks before hitting retail, which is true. But it's also true that the dlc you're playing was completed completed weeks before it was sent in for market place/psn approval.

The dlc that came with ME2 was clearly aways designed as part of the story throughout ME2's development.

Ofcourse without the "ten dollar" scheme EA could well turn round and start charging for the dlc a week after the full games release (like most publishers do these days)... or without the scheme we could of had that content on the disc day 1.. who knows, you don't.

Either way, it's not the fact that we're actually getting it that i resent...it's the fact that we're getting it sold to us under the illusion of extra "free" content, and alot of kids will end up praising EA for being so "kind" to them

i don't really view it as free content exactly.

I kind of agree that we should have it in the first place, but the download is a small price to pay, as long as it keeps them to make more games.

this is so they can profit off of the millions of used sales.